This Sunday October 22nd at 2:00pm the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg (WMC) will be presenting a concert called “The Slavic Soul.” The Concert takes place at CMU’s Laudamus Auditorium and will feature two musicians that are very familiar to Winnipeg Audiences, cellist Paul Marleyn and Madeline Hildebrand.
Paul Marleyn is currently on faculty at The University of Ottawa, but previously served for many years as the cello teacher at the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music. Pianist Madeline Hildebrand has been an active collaborative pianist around Winnipeg for many years and has performed at events such as The WSO’s New Music Festival, The Virtuosi Concert Series and Nuit Blanche to name just a few. Recently she completed her Doctorate of Musical Performance at Stony Brook University in New York City.
As the title of the concert suggests, the concert will feature music by Slavic composers such as Prokofiev and Rachmaninov, but also lesser-known composers such as Gayane Chebotaryan, and Rodion Schedrin. The concert will also feature a work commissioned by the WMC for their 130th Anniversary written by Manitoba composer Karen Sunabacka.
When asked what she finds so appealing about playing Slavic music Hildebrand’s answer has two parts. “I find that there is a real lyrical nature to the music…but also because of the tradition of European music in general, there is a real show-offiness…so much of the program feels so athletic. My arms and hands are working up into lather and to experience that athleticism with another musician is just really exciting!”
One of the real highlights of the concert is that Hildebrand and Marleyn will be joined on stage by WSO violinist Elation Pauls for a premiere performance of a piece commissioned by the WMC. They will be performing a newly written piano trio by Manitoba composer Karen Sunabacka called “Embroidered with Jagged Patterns.” Inspired by the very close relationship between Sunabacka’s mother Joyce Clousten and Joyce’s disabled sister Beverly, this piece explores what is means to be siblings and grow up as sisters and best friends on the prairie. The piece takes its name from a poem written by Joyce:
Beverley and Joyce.
They danced with butterflies along ancient trails.
They wrestled through thorny pathways and though riven,
their bond deep rooted like wind-blown prairie grasses.
Their inner lives entwined, embroidered with jagged patterns.
Beverley and Joyce.
This is going to be a fantastic concert!!
“The Slavic Soul” takes place this Sunday at 2:00 at Canadian Mennonite University’s Laudamus Auditorium. For more details visit The Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg’s Website are call 204-944-9431
Program
*Embroidered with Jagged Patterns - Karen Sunabacka
Vocalise - Rachmaninov
Sonata - Prokofiev
Spiegel im Spiegel - Arvo Pärt
Pohadka - Leoš Janáček
Epilogue LB - Valentyn Sylvestrov
Hungarian Rhapsody - David Popper